


Death in an Instant, Life at a Cost

by DaniJayNel



Series: 100 YumiKuri Stories [70]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: AU, F/F, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-10
Updated: 2015-05-10
Packaged: 2018-03-29 21:19:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3911065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaniJayNel/pseuds/DaniJayNel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It happened quickly. Ymir never expected to die that day. Neither did those in the afterlife, and Historia is left to explain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Death in an Instant, Life at a Cost

**Author's Note:**

> Yo. So this is a random thing I just kinda made up on the spot. Also trying out ‘Historia’ instead of ‘Krista’. It was weird. I prefer Krista. But I dunno. This happened.

“Why did you do it?”

Ymir snorted around a puff of smoke. “You know why,” she muttered, took another drag and let it out slowly. “Everyone knows why.”

“I want to hear it from you, Ymir.”

Ymir’s brown-laced eyes flashed dark for a moment, then her lids slid shut halfway and she shrugged her shoulders. “Why do you care?”

Blonde hair toppled down from behind a delicate ear, and a pale hand reached out to touch Ymir’s skin. A single white feather dropped from its wing and drifted to the ground. “Because I know you, Ymir,” she said. “I don’t understand why you did it.”

Snorting again, puffing at the smoke again, Ymir finally stood and brushed the dirt from her pants. “Fine,” she said. “I did it because I love you.”

Blonde brows furrowed. “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“Hell if I know, Historia. But it happened, and here I am. What now?”

Historia’s wings flapped lightly in annoyance and then settled. She chewed at her lower lip in thought. “Well, now isn’t your time. This wasn’t supposed to even happen. I don’t—I’m not sure.”

Ymir lowered her gaze to meet Historia’s. “You’re a goddamn angel and you don’t know what to do with a dead idiot?”

The tiniest smile curved the perfect line of Historia small pink mouth, but she did not let it be and merely cooled her expression in response. Her eyes, blue and soft, often shimmered with gentle passion and kindness. Now they looked cold and hard, and Ymir’s lips dropped down into a frown.

“You weren’t supposed to even die!” Historia snapped. She pressed her face into her hands. “I failed to protect you.”

“Protect me?” Ymir scoffed. She sucked out the last of the nicotine and then threw the bud to the ground, crushing it underneath her boot. It was strange, she thought, how she no longer needed to breathe yet the illusion of smoking had calmed her nerves.

“Yes! I was sent to you to protect you, specifically.”

“Why?” Now it was Ymir’s turn to look curious, concerned. She tilted her head to the side, her eyes dipping down in the way that made them smoulder, and Historia had to roll her eyes at the way her own heart did a pitter-patter in her chest. _Seriously heart,_ she thought. _Control yourself._

“I already explained it to you when we first met.”

“Yeah, yeah. Each angel is assigned a human of which they must protect. But you didn’t go by the book. You introduced yourself to me. You pretended to be human. You made me fall in love with you.”

Historia’s eyes narrowed. “That may have caused complications, but that wasn’t my intent. I just… I was fascinated by you.”

“And that’s my fault?”

Suddenly Historia exploded. “You jumped in front of a damn bus for me, you idiot!”

Ymir’s chest expanded. “I didn’t just jump! I pushed you out of the way! Jesus Christ.”

“If Jesus was here right now he would be _very_ upset with you.”

“With me? I didn’t disrupt the whole goddamn system of existence. You broke the rules, not _me_.”

Historia quieted, grew solemn. “You’re right,” she said. “My selfishness cost you your life. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry!” Ymir roared. “Fix this! Can’t you bring me back or something?”

“Look around you!”

Ymir did. She had to admit, from where she was standing her death seemed pretty much a finality. She was above the city she had lived in, suspended in the air. Though this too, she knew, was an illusion. She wasn’t exactly sure where she was, but it was definitely no longer the world of the living. “So what then?” Ymir asked. “What do you do to dead people?”

“We don’t do anything _to_ them. We escort them after they have passed and then after, when they—when we make sure they—” She paused and rubbed at her temples. “When we assure they are either assigned a position in Paradise or Veran, or are sent back to their realm to live a new life.”

“Basically, stick us in heaven or hell, or reincarnate us? How do you determine that?”

“By your tally,” Historia said.

“Tally?”

“Like, the points you earn through your life. If this is your second or third, then it all amounts from each life. Your actions all earn a certain point—a tally—and at the end of it we review them to see what you qualify for.”

Ymir groaned and reached for another cigarette. Lighting it gave her the time to conjure a thought, think of something to say. “What the fuck kind of system is that? I thought I ditched school years ago.”

“Ymir, the very basis of your human society has developed on the foundations we laid for you. When we first discovered your realm your kind were nothing but insects on the floor. We gifted you—gave you the gift of fire, of intelligence and wit. How you used it afterwards became your own burden. We merely watched and waited, guiding you where we saw fit.”

“Sounds like shit either way. Your biggest mistake was giving some greasy monkey the idea to light a fire. See where it got us?”

Historia tapped a finger against Ymir’s wrist and then pinched the cigarette from between her lips. Before Ymir could cry in outrage, Historia pulled it between her pink lips and then inhaled deeply. Her blue eyes shut behind thin lids, and then fluttered open a moment later. Her pupils dilated.

“Didn’t know you smoke,” Ymir said, a small smile playing on her lips.

“We invented the practice, Ymir,” Historia stated. “I may look it, but I’m not fragile.”

Ymir’s eyes flashed. “Oh do I know it.”

“Stop that,” Historia flushed. Her eyes darted away and she threw the smoke to the ground, ignoring Ymir’s unhappy shout. “You… you defiled me!”

Ymir chuckled and got over her upset at the wasted smoke. “Excuse me? Last night it seemed that you were the one doing the defiling. I just went along for the ride.”

A large flap of wings distracted Historia from her retort and her eyes widened in surprise. A tall, muscled blonde landed close to them and then took a step forward. She wore military attire, from what Ymir could see—space-like, nothing like earth military. Her blue eyes were hardened thanks to time and trauma and Ymir felt intimidated by her, though she showed no sign of it and squared her jaw.

“Nanaba!” Historia exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”

It was slow at first. Nanaba’s eyes fixed on Ymir, hard and absolute, but then the gaze in them softened until she looked to the small blonde, and then a smile formed at her lips and she flashed brilliant white teeth. “I heard that you messed up,” she spoke firmly, with authority, yet still with a hint of affection and teasing. Ymir marvelled at it, then marvelled at how it made Historia blush scarlet to her ears. “I had to see this for myself.”

Ymir felt as though it would have been appropriate to laugh, but didn’t. “I feel excluded,” she complained.

Nanaba remembered the deceased’s presence and straightened. “Ymir, following the tragic circumstance of your death, I am to escort you and your guardian angel to the courts. Due to the nature of this incident, you will not be processed as the normal deceased are. You will have a hearing.”

“A hearing? What the hell did I even do?”

Nanaba’s smile grew in amusement. “You died,” she said.

Historia flushed even further—either in anger or embarrassment, Ymir couldn’t tell—but she offered no complaint and spread her wings when Nanaba did, and then flapped them powerfully to follow. Ymir felt her body—if she could even still call it that—lift and cursed lightly when her legs flailed under her. A small hand clutched at her shirt and Historia managed to shoot her a wink.

The trip wasn’t long, and eventually they were walking down a long, golden open hallway. It was flanked by stretches of wide gardens that contained statues and fountains. Ymir wasn’t impressed, and her stomach fluttered with nerves. Eventually they made it, and Ymir hoped it would be over soon. Afterwards she stepped out of the large courtroom, head swimming.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “What just happened?”

Nanaba lifted a blonde brow at Historia and then dipped her head. “I will leave the both of you to your privacy. Historia,” she shared a look with the angel. “I trust that you will do what must be done.”

Historia nodded. “I will.”

“Good.” And with that she was gone in a sudden rush of air. She left behind her only a faint scent of fresh leaves and chocolate.

“So,” Historia began. “What happened was, they re-evaluated your lives. You’ve had a few—that’s the reason. You weren’t supposed to have so many lives but someone,” Historia nervously scratched her cheek. “Sent you back to the earthly domain instead of giving you a position. You’re supposed to be in Veran.”

Ymir laughed. “In hell? My mother always said I’d burn in hell. I often said I’d see her there.”

“Would you like to?” Historia asked in utter seriousness. Her big, blue eyes shimmered in the light from the fountain to their left, and Ymir had not the heart to insult her, so she merely shook her head and smiled.

“Nah.”

“You sure? Okay. So, you’ve been kind of M.I.A for a while… but it’s all really complicated, so let’s head over to the left wing and get you processed.”

“You’re going to reincarnate me again, aren’t you?” Ymir asked, arms folded over her chest. “I have a feeling that we’ve spoken about this before.”

Historia slumped. “Don’t tell anyone.”

“It’s really obvious.”

“Really?”

“You’ve been my guardian angel through each life, right? I’m pretty sure we’ve even had a few kids.”

Historia’s eyes brightened. “We have! They’re all here in Paradise, actually.” She quickly slapped a hand over her mouth and cringed. Damnit, she’d just spilled it.

“Well I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that. But seriously. I want to be like you. Make me an angel.”

“Ymir, if you want to be processed properly then you’ll became a demon and live in Veran.”

“Can I still see you?”

“Yeah.”

“Do I get wings?”

“Not the feathery kind, but you do.”

“Then do it.”

Historia sighed. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

“Honestly? Earth sucked ass. It sucked my ass on many occasions, and not in the sexy way. I think hell would literally be better than earth.”

“Lots of paper work,” she warned. “And Satan—we like to call him Levi sometimes—is an asshole.”

“So am I.”

Historia sighed and then threw up her hands. “Okay, fine! But afterwards we’re going to greet some of your kids. They miss you.”

Ymir pointedly ignored that for now. “So demon it is?”

“Yeah, yeah, you stubborn ass. Demon it is. Wait until Nanaba hears about this.”

“Can’t wait to see her face.”

“I bet you can’t.”


End file.
